News Round Up: Valor Point Cap, Ghostcrawler Twitter Highlights

While many of us are still on vacation, Blizzard staff is returning to regular news posting! Today we have some explanations behind the Valor Points cap--always a hot topic--and what the purpose of common-quality vendor gear serves when it gives minimal upgrades. Personally, I think it adds some neat flavor even if the items aren't huge upgrades, but would like to be able to use them for transmog.

Ghostcrawler has also been pretty active on twitter dispensing advice and answering player concerns. We've picked out some of the most interesting recent ones, which cover class balance, LFR droprates, and cooking catch-up mechanisms.

Vaneras

The cap should not really be seen as punishment to people for being able to reach the maximum amount of Valor Pointss every week. The idea behind the cap is to give people a choice on how they reach the cap without having them feel obliged to do everything.

Valor Pointss should also not be considered the primary way of gearing your character. The idea behind Valor in MoP is for them to be a supplement to the gearing process. i.e. you gear up normally through dungeons and raids. As it is normal to have streaks of bad luck, and thus having weeks when you are obtaining no or only few upgrades, you can get a little gear on the side by using Valor Pointss and by doing a little crafting/trading.

Just as the method of acquiring Valor Pointss is a choice, so it is a choice how you decide to spend your Valor Pointss.

The cap means that you cannot have everything at once, or even very quickly(as that would render the normal gearing process irrelevant), and this means that you will have to prioritise and make a choice when spending your points... one that actually matters. You must choose what is most beneficial to your character - decide if it is better in the long run to upgrade a piece or replace that piece with something else. If you feel the best way to spend your Valor Pointss is to upgrade your armor, well then that is what you spend your Valor Pointss on when you are able to do so.

The primary means of acquiring new gear is through defeating content like for an example raids, whereas Valor Pointss is a supplemental means of getting new gear. For an example, if you have acquired the best possible gear you can get from one tier of content, then you should be well equipped to face the next tier of content above it, which will reward you with even better gear if you succeed. The Valor Pointss system serves as a supplement to that process, helping you with a new piece of gear or an upgrade here or there, but it is not meant as an alternate gearing process.

There are several reasons behind the Valor cap btw., none of which are to serve as a punishment for people with a lot of time on their hands. Just in case you would like to know the reasons behind the Valor cap, they are as follows:

To make sure that the normal gearing process through facing and defeating different tiers of content is not circumvented or rendered irrelevant.

To make your choices matter. We want there to be choice and decision-making involved when building and playing your character.

To ensure that as many people as possible can use their time in-game on something they think is fun and that they enjoy doing, and not make people feel like they have to spend massive amounts of time every day just to reach a theoretical maximum weekly limit of Valor Pointss.

Whether or not the cap is too low is of course a different matter, and this kind of thing is of course something the developers are keeping an eye on continuously as the game evolves and progresses :-)

Click the cut to read about the reasoning behind common-quality vendor gear, and a roundup of Ghostcrawler's most interesting tweets!

@Ghostcrawler Twitter Highlights

Ghostcrawler

@Ghostcrawler will we ever see a catch-up system like with cooking for other professions? #WoW@CBooth89 Likely in some form. We wanted to see how Cooking worked out. Details

@Ghostcrawler Do you think there might be just a bit too much passive damage going on with rogues now? That's what personally turned me off.@Alyndra1 To use FPS terms, the high auto+poison damage keeps rogues feeling like an SMG instead of a shotgun. Maybe time for a change Details

@Ghostcrawler LFR drop rates may not work as catch-up mechanism when player (new player or alt) is a couple tiers behind in expac@holyshanthi We could always increase drop rates of older content to let it provide catch up gear quickly but not too quickly.Details

@Ghostcrawler I'm reading the 5.2 PTR notes, and it looks like Monks are going to be like DK's in season 5... Your thoughts?@Chadmc56 We hope not, but Monks are so absent from PvP right now that we fear the solutions need to be dramatic, not subtle. Details

@Ghostcrawler Figured I'd try asking again but is the way Howling Blast gets spammed by Frost DW in both single target and aoe considered fine by devs?@KaistV We think it's borderline. Seems unfair to tell Warriors they can't use Whirlwind single target but then let Death Knights do it. Details

@hawke_CR @ghostcrawler Tho I agree on principle, I do wonder at what point we ask "I just don't have time for a video game."@SkarnWoW We need to get the community back to a place where incremental progress is satisfying. Details

@Ghostcrawler @Mironolo Please consider making Divine Purpose baseline. Even if it has a lower proc chance it would help sustained damage.@N_Cella We heard from a lot of paladins who hated Divine Purpose. A talent seemed like a good solution. Details

Vendors with Leveling Gear

Takralus

I think we're essentially discussing convenience vs gaming experience here. I would personally have to agree with the latter sentiment above, that vendor gear like this isn't meant to provide meaningful upgrades, such as from grey/white gear to greens for low level characters. Without high level characters backing you up, you have to go out and explore, fight and win to get better stuff.

For me at least, part of the fun when I start a brand new character on a new realm is having to quest for a while in the most basic of equipment. Then, when you get that first green and you can feel the difference in combat, it feels good, whether it's from a reward or a drop. Just running to a vendor and buying yourself some new gear that is equivalent to the quest rewards seems a little boring in comparison, it would take away some of that excitement. As it stands now, I usually go and grab the white gear for new characters as soon as I can afford it, because any upgrade, no matter how small, helps. And, at that level, grey/white stuff works just fine :)Vendors for expansion switches would be nice indeed.Especially BC->Northrend and Northrend->Cat. Especially Northernd->Cat would be nice, as for healers its hard gearing to be able to join Cat instances soonish due to ilvl requirement.

I have noticed (recently in fact) that the first few quests in Cataclysm can certainly be tough unless you're in really good gear from Wrath. However, you get some great upgrades from those quests which make things easier almost immediately. So I still question the need for vendors at expansion junctions, considering how quickly you pick up replacement gear.

There are vendors in Crossroads that sell green gear, also in Sepulcher and Hillsbrad. They are in other places too like Duskwood.

Yeah but by this stage, green gear and some blue items are readily available through quests and dungeons, so it's not like the vendor gear is a significant upgrade. I think that's the argument here, to be able to buy gear that's better than what's available through normal levelling, am I right?Okay so to address the original topic of whites and greens to lowbies; Yes, you do get new gear quickly at that level, but by doing cool things like dungeons as you mention. Which is why I think being able to just buy greens from the get-go on a new character would be a little sad.

On the topic of new gear for expansions, it's true that you can invest a little cash (of which you should have plenty by this point in the game) in the AH to make the transition a little easier, for sure. There are some nice crafted sets available, you could have someone make you that—I did this for my Paladin, who had some awesome healing gear but nothing at all for DPS, and she failed hard in the starting zone for Pandaria. Again, it comes down to convenience vs. having to go out there and 'play the game', be it chatting to crafters, earning gold to buy yourself a starting set for the new lands or toughing it out by struggling through those first few quests. Just plonking a vendor in the new zone as soon as you arrive with shiny new gear isn't much fun. This isn't the case with the Pandaria vendors by the way, you've probably replaced most of your gear by the time you reach them, although they do offer you the chance to get things for any slots you might still be needing (and gear for offspec ofc).

Comments

Comment by Kazlehoff

on 2013-01-02T12:52:13-06:00

The truth to what the VP cap is: An Artificial Slowing mechanisim.

we could get gear too quickly in Cata. there wasnt enough grinding, so people started leaving earlier than anticipated which impacted on blizzards bottom dollar. the cap has now been lowered to make gearing drag out more, so people have to play more.

Theres your real reason.

Comment by groovz

on 2013-01-02T12:59:14-06:00

Some Thoughts.

1. "Valor cap btw., none of which"

Non Capitalized letter after a Full Stop? :O Haven't seen that in a long time. I know its the internet but come on Blizzard, we pay you enough to afford proper spelling and grammar.

2.To ensure that as many people as possible can use their time in-game on something they think is fun and that they enjoy doing, and not make people feel like they have to spend massive amounts of time every day just to reach a theoretical maximum weekly limit of Valor Pointss.

If Blizzard felt like that, why did they implement a quest to gather 6000 Valor Points...Nobody wants that to take longer than 6 weeks and thus we are forced to feel 'obliged' to cap valor every week to 1000 (Which is even Worse if you only do LFR and have everything you need from MSV + 1st half of HoF)

3. Whether or not the cap is too low is of course a different matter, and this kind of thing is of course something the developers are keeping an eye on continuously as the game evolves and progresses :-)

The Valor Cap was 1250 towards the end and I think even near the start of Cataclysm. I don't know why they couldn't of just left it at that.

Comment by dreamwvr

on 2013-01-02T13:26:03-06:00

I don't think Blizzard has figured out yet that there are a lot more solo players than there used to be. We gear to solo content and get more gear and I believe eventually you will find more solo players than guilders. We are the true die hard players of this game and we don't leave. If Blizzard wants to keep people playing they need to cater more towards us individuals who really have no interest in joining the jerks that play raids. I want to run raids, but I want to solo them. Make the mechanics of a boss doable by a single player. Let an individual create a raid group of 1 so we don't have to jump through hoops just have a little fun. Come on Blizzard, give us some love!

Comment by suplup

on 2013-01-02T13:38:34-06:00

I want the white gear to be transmoggable, especially the panda starting gear, the blue set. The one that Aysa Cloudsinger wears.

Comment by Saliman

on 2013-01-02T16:01:37-06:00

1. "Valor cap btw., none of which are to serve as a punishment "

Non Capitalized letter after a Full Stop? :O Haven't seen that in a long time. I know its the internet but come on Blizzard, we pay you enough to afford proper spelling and grammar.

There is no need for capitalization after the full stop in that sentence, as the author used it to indicate he'd abbreviated "by the way". Although I doubt this form ("btw.") is correct, I assume he had something in mind like "etc.". Words that follow abbreviations with punctuation (for instance "U.S.A." or "i.e.") are not capitalized, unless they are proper nouns.

On a sidenote, I find it odd you are remarking upon proper capitalization, when you yourself wrote your first sentence using excessive capital letters - only the first word of "Non Capitalized letter after a Full Stop?" need be capitalized.

Comment by Harle

on 2013-01-02T17:01:37-06:00

Some Thoughts.

1. "Valor cap btw., none of which"

Non Capitalized letter after a Full Stop? :O Haven't seen that in a long time. I know its the internet but come on Blizzard, we pay you enough to afford proper spelling and grammar.

2.To ensure that as many people as possible can use their time in-game on something they think is fun and that they enjoy doing, and not make people feel like they have to spend massive amounts of time every day just to reach a theoretical maximum weekly limit of Valor Pointss.

If Blizzard felt like that, why did they implement a quest to gather 6000 Valor Points...Nobody wants that to take longer than 6 weeks and thus we are forced to feel 'obliged' to cap valor every week to 1000 (Which is even Worse if you only do LFR and have everything you need from MSV + 1st half of HoF)

3. Whether or not the cap is too low is of course a different matter, and this kind of thing is of course something the developers are keeping an eye on continuously as the game evolves and progresses :-)

The Valor Cap was 1250 towards the end and I think even near the start of Cataclysm. I don't know why they couldn't of just left it at that.

I know its the internet - "I know it's the internet" ***

weekly limit of Valor Pointss - "weekly limit of Valor Points." ***

(Which is even Worse if... - "which is even worse if..." ***

Among other grammatical errors that I just can't be asked correcting. So my question is: really kid? You're going to complain about one simple lower case letter after a period with that kind of writing?

Comment by BahamutBBob

on 2013-01-02T17:54:13-06:00

I have noticed (recently in fact) that the first few quests in Cataclysm can certainly be tough unless you're in really good gear from Wrath. However, you get some great upgrades from those quests which make things easier almost immediately.

I just got an Assassination rogue to 85. Upon hitting 80, I decided to do Vashj'ir. I used maybe two of the rewards available before outleveling the zones through dungeons. There was an Agility option about half the time. Usually it was mail, or an axe. Neither work for my build. I was underpowered until I got my hands on a pair of the new 417 BoE blue daggers from MoP, which made me overpowered. It felt like using heirloom weapons on a level 1 character.

it's true that you can invest a little cash (of which you should have plenty by this point in the game)

The highest I've reached, on all of my characters combined, is about 70k. I stupidly built one of the new Engineering mounts, and nobody has wanted to buy it after two months. My bankroll has not come close to recovering. Stop assuming everyone has a ton of money!

I wonder if Blizzard people actually read comments here? I doubt it.

Comment by AnrDaemon

on 2013-01-02T21:38:06-06:00

I wonder if Blizzard people actually read comments here? I doubt it.

They don't read comments even on US forums. They only post.

There are several reasons behind the Valor cap btw., none of which are to serve as a punishment for people with a lot of time on their hands.

Translation: We only intend to punish people, who don't have enough time to sit 10 hours a day in raids.

Comment by Mantrhax

on 2013-01-03T06:25:32-06:00

like the majority of all blue posts, blah blah blah and no solution for people clains, why not up the cap like 100 or 150 more to please people ? To not gear up too fast? really ? so, if i do all lfr and got a drop from every boss just because im luck, am i gearing up too fast ? i'm able to get 10 pieces from raid in one week and barely 1 piece using valor... what kind of excuse is that ? bs like allways

Comment by Iceveiled

on 2013-01-03T13:22:17-06:00

The truth to what the VP cap is: An Artificial Slowing mechanisim.

we could get gear too quickly in Cata. there wasnt enough grinding, so people started leaving earlier than anticipated which impacted on blizzards bottom dollar. the cap has now been lowered to make gearing drag out more, so people have to play more.

Theres your real reason.

Exactly this, for better or for worse. Blizzard is, like all game developers, a business first and a game developer second.

Comment by lyom

on 2013-01-04T07:10:37-06:00

No matter what they say, they could simply make items cost less than the cap if they were really worried about players doing too much. But instead items cost just a teeny tiny bit more than the cap, so you cannot do it in one week.

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